UCLA Fielding School appoints Dr. Rachael Jones chair of the department of Environmental Health Sciences

On July 1, Dr. Rachael Jones will join the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health faculty and begin service as chair of the Department of Environmental Health Science and director of the Southern California Education and Research Center.

Currently an associate professor in the Division of Occupational and Environmental Health at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, Jones directs both the Industrial Hygiene Program and the Utah Center for Promotion of Work Equity Research, a NIOSH Center of Excellence for Total Worker Health. She also serves as chief editor of the Annals of Work Exposures and Health, the renowned peer-reviewed journal of the British Occupational Hygiene Society. The journal is published by Oxford University Press.

Jones’ research addresses occupational health and industrial hygiene, with a focus on the assessment and prevention of stressors that workers and communities experience, including healthcare workers providing care to patients with infectious diseases. Her work also explores factors responsible for creating and sustaining unhealthy work environments, particularly as experienced by low-wage workers.

“Dr. Jones’ expertise and leadership skills make her an ideal fit for the chair and director roles she will assume at UCLA Fielding,” said Dr. Ron Brookmeyer, dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “I am certain that the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and the Southern California Education and Research Center will thrive under Dr. Jones’ leadership.”

In addition to Jones’ current service as chief editor of the Annals of Work Exposures and Health, she has guest edited the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, and the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. For the latter, she also served for seven years on the Editorial Review Board.

“As department chair and director of the Southern California Education and Research Center, my goal is to use collaborative processes to facilitate the success of faculty, staff, and students and their ability to impact the health and well-being of workers and communities,” said Jones.

Jones earned her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington, and both her Master of Public Health and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Environmental Health Sciences from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her post-doctoral training at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health, where she later served on the faculty before joining the University of Utah.

After two and a half years in the role of interim chair for the Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Shane Que Hee will return full-time to research, teaching, and training at the end of this month.

The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, founded in 1961, is dedicated to enhancing the public's health by conducting innovative research, training future leaders and health professionals from diverse backgrounds, translating research into policy and practice, and serving our local communities and the communities of the nation and the world. The school has 761 students from 26 nations engaged in carrying out the vision of building healthy futures in greater Los Angeles, California, the nation and the world.